This commentary is by Dan Smith of Burlington, president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation.
People are tired of politics. Mistrust and polarization have that effect. Trust is the connective tissue of civic structures, and the trend is to trust leaders and each other less. As elections increase in intensity, we should reassess what needs to get done (policy) and how we choose to do it (civic design and approach to leadership).
Community and democracy thrive with a sense of shared fate and the potential for progress. Polarization and stalemate offer neither. In Vermont, the need to address our demographics, build homes, stabilize health care, adapt to dramatic weather and create the conditions for a strong economy require a political system that functions as we were taught it might, instead of how it currently does…